[freelancr]

Speaking of the devil, today i was passing by Huawei store and took a quick u turn to try the Freebuds Pro 2. I was so happy and having great expectations


And there is demo unit there. Connected to my non huawei phone (samsung) flawlessly

They are light, made of plastic
Fit is great even with default eartips
I listen to spotify and flac files, a bit uncomfortable since the store clerk were staring at me all the time, I didn't care much, I just closed my eyes and focus to the music
And I was disappointed.. They are good for tws, just not as my huge expectation with great FR and planar driver.
My quick impressions:
The Bass is clean as they have nice bass shelf, but the big boosted mid and sub bass on 60hz lower are too big, clean deep but too overwhelming for me made the mids and highs dialed back, performing L shaped tuning. The sub bass dig deep, but the quality isn't that great and the mid bass while having clean cut, they smeared a lot, so they aren't tight.
I would give the bass score 6 / 10
(Z1R bass 9.5, Kato bass 7, Hana 2021 bass 6 for comparison). They are not perform better than KZ XUN driver sadly.

Mids have great tuning, have good details and smooth without weird peaks but still the bass is shadowing mids, not in muddy way of 100-300hz, clean bass but just too big in quantity. Not shouty, have neutral note weight, not thin that is good. Clear voices if we focus otherwise the big bass take the authority.
Mids score 7 / 10

Trebles is mediocre, not sibilance, smooth presentation, not enough bite for me, extension is hardly heard but i wasn't sure because ambient was quite noisy too. But nothing on trebles has impressed me.
Treble score 6 / 10

Details are under my expectation since i was hoping planar details. They are nothing like my Timeless, even though only connected to Fiio UTWS5, leave alone 4.4 balance cable + M11 plus ESS. Details are little bit distant and nothing special here. 6 or 7 / 10 cant be sure from short listening session.

Soundstage is medium, with good enough imaging, layering is minimum since depth also.

Actually i did my homework and maybe they just use planar for marketing wording since their planar is small closed planar that looked like BA here :


@freelancr hey man with full respect I really don't questioning your impressions nor your FR graph.
Not sure if I heard everything in great settings but ANC was off (tried to on for 1 or 2 minutes) and my short listening session of course won't be accurate. In fact, i was ready to grab one, graph looked very great although i know the bass will be too much, but i didn't expect that overwhelming
And the real dealbreaker for me is the volume level. I was listening on max volume, and that wasn't loud enough for me.
I know I'm very picky with bass quality but I was hoping great clean bass presentation there, and they do have clean bass but the boosted frequencies are too much. Anyway thank you and appreciate your impressions before

Cheers buddy!

Ok. I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If I go to max volume on my LG V30 it almost hurts. I switched to the big tips immediately due to better seal. did you use the AI app? Which sound profile did you use?
If the max volume was too low something wasn't right.

 

[DynamicEars]

Ok. I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If I go to max volume on my LG V30 it almost hurts. I switched to the big tips immediately due to better seal. did you use the AI app? Which sound profile did you use?
If the max volume was too low something wasn't right.

Not too low, but just not loud enough for me (i like to hear music loud, around 75-85/120 on balance, high gain on M11 plus depends on the IEM, or around 55-65 / 100 on balance, high gain on ibasso DX160. Timeless with UTWS5 is on 1 or 2 volume step below max.

I didn't use Huawei AI app on my phone since i don't have it installed but I did try with store clerk's phone since I was asking about this maximum volume thing, playing with settings but couldn't find any more volume setting beside swipe up and down for volume level which is bind to the phone volume level too.

Sound profile is set on dynamic on his phone, I didn't play around.

One thing I forgot to try is I was busy focusing on the sound quality and tonality and left the phone picked up default codec which i didn't know what codec it was. I assume it will be AAC? Or they will automatically go to the best supported codec automatically?

Maybe I'll try to have another session on another store since I don't think the store clerk will be happy see a weird picky guy and asking much and spending half an hour on the accessories section while mostly people looking and asking about phones lol.

 

[drewbadour]

Hello!

Thought this might be a discovery worth sharing but after spending the recent months searching for the perfect IEM to replace the UE TF10 I bought over 10 years ago, I've tried almost 40 IEMs from cheap (MH750/755) to high end (U12T) and have found that the perfect IEM for me is...

Drum roll please....

Not an IEM!

I bought a Yincrow X6 on a whim because I heard someone say it was better than the VE Monks I tossed years ago, or the Yuin PK3 I gave away. And I was blown away. How does something that cost me $8 sound better than the $100+ IEMs that always had some flaw that made me not like them?

That led me down the rabbit hole of discovering @RikudouGoku's RikuBud collection and @tgx78's Serratus and Alpha and I can just say that I am a convert!

I had Mest MK2 and Moondrop Variations on my desk for 2 weeks and I barely listened to them - instead spending 99% of my listening time with an earbud in my ears.

Now I admit, I don't have the best ears so I can't say I hear a lot of the things that a lot of people say they pick up about sound but I do care a lot about timbre - my wife is a concert violinist and has spent more time honing her craft to this point than most people will spend working a regular job over their lifetime - which also means that I have become intimately familiar with how instruments (especially violin) should sound. And I haven't found a single IEM that can reproduce such real and natural timbre and tone. When using IEMs I found myself avoiding classical music because most just sounded off to me. I had to gravitate to more modern music that doesn't rely so heavily on tone color and timbre. With the Serratus (or any other bud I now own for that), I'm finding myself getting lost in Gil Shaham performing Bach's Violin Sonatas and Partitas, or Hilary Hahn methodically nailing the Sibelius Violin Concerto without so much as missing a beat, etc.

I've now sold off all my IEMs except for the one I found to be most natural (the Kinda Lava) and have happily converted over to the flathead earbud club.

For those of you uninitiated and don't need the isolation of IEMs, I would highly recommend giving earbuds a shot!

 

[freelancr]

default codec which i didn't know what codec it was. I assume it will be AAC?

AAC, yes. At least on my iphone 12 and V30 when not switched to smart HD in the AI app. I'll post a sound demo vs the Variations later in the TWS thread and discuss there so people don't get spammed with this topic.

 

[lushmelody]

Making a collaboration lost its unique value for me. All they do is just tune the iem to a target and done.

It just ended in a spam of redundant products. Most pricey single drivers....

 

[lushmelody]

Hello!

Thought this might be a discovery worth sharing but after spending the recent months searching for the perfect IEM to replace the UE TF10 I bought over 10 years ago, I've tried almost 40 IEMs from cheap (MH750/755) to high end (U12T) and have found that the perfect IEM for me is...

Drum roll please....

Not an IEM!

I bought a Yincrow X6 on a whim because I heard someone say it was better than the VE Monks I tossed years ago, or the Yuin PK3 I gave away. And I was blown away. How does something that cost me $8 sound better than the $100+ IEMs that always had some flaw that made me not like them?

That led me down the rabbit hole of discovering @RikudouGoku's RikuBud collection and @tgx78's Serratus and Alpha and I can just say that I am a convert!

I had Mest MK2 and Moondrop Variations on my desk for 2 weeks and I barely listened to them - instead spending 99% of my listening time with an earbud in my ears.

Now I admit, I don't have the best ears so I can't say I hear a lot of the things that a lot of people say they pick up about sound but I do care a lot about timbre - my wife is a concert violinist and has spent more time honing her craft to this point than most people will spend working a regular job over their lifetime - which also means that I have become intimately familiar with how instruments (especially violin) should sound. And I haven't found a single IEM that can reproduce such real and natural timbre and tone. When using IEMs I found myself avoiding classical music because most just sounded off to me. I had to gravitate to more modern music that doesn't rely so heavily on tone color and timbre. With the Serratus (or any other bud I now own for that), I'm finding myself getting lost in Gil Shaham performing Bach's Violin Sonatas and Partitas, or Hilary Hahn methodically nailing the Sibelius Violin Concerto without so much as missing a beat, etc.

I've now sold off all my IEMs except for the one I found to be most natural (the Kinda Lava) and have happily converted over to the flathead earbud club.

For those of you uninitiated and don't need the isolation of IEMs, I would highly recommend giving earbuds a shot!

Buds seem so overlooked. For home use, they can be way better priced than HPs in relative similar performance. I guess...

 

[BigGearHunter]

200 is a bigger price jump than what I expected given it's around 160 in mainland China. (I expected 180.)

It's reasonably priced but I'm willing to bet the hybrid mode is going to be a total gimmick.

Will the Talos be the new Planar king? Doubt it, but I'll probably be a solid option within the Planar space.

Very few IEMs with DIP switches have more than 1 useful config or none of them are usable because the base tuning is poop.

"Total gimmick" sounds just about right

 

[lushmelody]

Wold. Geek Wold.

My hot take is that most IEMs in the sub-100 range essentially offer different flavours of the same thing. They have to be built to a price, so there are going to be limitations inherent in the drivers that are available at that price, and one has to hope that the particular tuning can compensate for said limitations. There are exceptions to this rule, but if you want truly better technicalities (i.e. things that cannot be EQed in) then that comes with a cost.

The danger of that delusional chase for technicalities is purchasing something way more expensive for marginal benefits. Instead of a engaging or pleasant experience, its a search for an extreme resolution, instrument fidelity and perfection that are not even rational. Chasing unicorns...

Most people just listen to MUSIC casually and wants to have fun. Have a moment for mere enjoyment. Unless you are a professional that needs very analytical stuff, there is no reason to spend so much in audio transducers.

Maybe a clue of why most brands are launching so many sub $100, right?

 

[drewbadour]

Buds seem so overlooked. For home use, they can be way better priced than HPs in relative similar performance. I guess...

Totally agree! And honestly - I'd say that a lot of relatively cheap flathead earbuds outperform headphones that are many times more expensive - for me there are $100 earbuds that outperform the most popular mid-fi headphones costing $700-1200 dollars. It's quite mind boggling to say the least!

 

[PhonoPhi]

My happy experience/discovery today - got Kinera Celeste Gumiho, and just the art of the package and the contents totally made my day, amazing!
The beautiful image of 九尾狐 was a bit small for the shell, so Celeste made a nice bookmark. A very good pouch (thick and with a magnetic clasp) and a well-coordinated functional cable:

I have not tried them yet, the small shell size and 9 Ohm will take some time to figure out what can work.

 

[WAON303]

And here I was thinking about saving up and getting a Thieaudio Oracle at 11.11.


I'll take it at that price, probably won't be that price at release though

https://www.linsoul.com/collections/in-ear-monitors/products/thieaudio-oracle-mkii

I'm just hoping $590 is the MSRP and not a special price for people who preorder one.

Hoping this will be a bit cheaper during 11.11 but I doubt that's gonna happen.

 

[wdelta06]

I'm just hoping $590 is the MSRP and not a special price for people who preorder one.

Hoping this will be a bit cheaper during 11.11 but I doubt that's gonna happen.

With our luck (as consumers), oracle mk2 won't even be released until post 11^2 (gotta move mk1's first).

I truly hope that's not the case, but typically... my "hopes" haven't gotten me very far in this strange yet intoxicating hobby. (No shade, just sayin'...)

[Btw very strange Linsoul removed that promo site so quickly after (erroneously?) posting ...]

 

[wdelta06]

My happy experience/discovery today - got Kinera Celeste Gumiho today, and just the art of the package and content made my day, amazing!
The beautiful image of 九尾狐 was a bit small for the shell, so Celeste made a nice bookmark. Nice pouch (thick and with a magnetic clasp) and a well-coordinated good functional cable:


I have not tried them yet, the small shell size and 9 Ohm will take some to figure out what can work.

Looking fwd to hearing early impressions good sir...

Personally (here comes an unpopular opinion), I was kinda underwhelmed by dioko... I mean I shouldn't be when you consider this is a $100 planar.

Crin probably wanted to tune something very different from previous frontrunners (s12, timeless, p1 series, etc).

That damn filter situation left a really bad impression (for me) too.

Didn't know I was paying reduced pricing to become iem DIY'er. (I changed the filters without issue, but did I inadvertently change the sound/tuning?)

[I shoulda tempered my expectations... ohh well, on to the next one!]

 

[o0genesis0o]

Hello!

Thought this might be a discovery worth sharing but after spending the recent months searching for the perfect IEM to replace the UE TF10 I bought over 10 years ago, I've tried almost 40 IEMs from cheap (MH750/755) to high end (U12T) and have found that the perfect IEM for me is...

Drum roll please....

Not an IEM!

I bought a Yincrow X6 on a whim because I heard someone say it was better than the VE Monks I tossed years ago, or the Yuin PK3 I gave away. And I was blown away. How does something that cost me $8 sound better than the $100+ IEMs that always had some flaw that made me not like them?

That led me down the rabbit hole of discovering @RikudouGoku's RikuBud collection and @tgx78's Serratus and Alpha and I can just say that I am a convert!

I had Mest MK2 and Moondrop Variations on my desk for 2 weeks and I barely listened to them - instead spending 99% of my listening time with an earbud in my ears.

Now I admit, I don't have the best ears so I can't say I hear a lot of the things that a lot of people say they pick up about sound but I do care a lot about timbre - my wife is a concert violinist and has spent more time honing her craft to this point than most people will spend working a regular job over their lifetime - which also means that I have become intimately familiar with how instruments (especially violin) should sound. And I haven't found a single IEM that can reproduce such real and natural timbre and tone. When using IEMs I found myself avoiding classical music because most just sounded off to me. I had to gravitate to more modern music that doesn't rely so heavily on tone color and timbre. With the Serratus (or any other bud I now own for that), I'm finding myself getting lost in Gil Shaham performing Bach's Violin Sonatas and Partitas, or Hilary Hahn methodically nailing the Sibelius Violin Concerto without so much as missing a beat, etc.

I've now sold off all my IEMs except for the one I found to be most natural (the Kinda Lava) and have happily converted over to the flathead earbud club.

For those of you uninitiated and don't need the isolation of IEMs, I would highly recommend giving earbuds a shot!

Another one bite the buds bug. Join us at the earbuds thread, we can fuel your addiction

But seriously, if you want soundstage, you don’t need isolation, you don’t want to wear headphone, you should try a pair of flat head earbuds. They are more similar to open back headphones than IEM. If you worry about the lack of bass, try FF3 and bass canons from @RikudouGoku. “Audiophile” earbuds are not your old Apple dirty buds.

My happy experience/discovery today - got Kinera Celeste Gumiho today, and just the art of the package and content made my day, amazing!
The beautiful image of 九尾狐 was a bit small for the shell, so Celeste made a nice bookmark. Nice pouch (thick and with a magnetic clasp) and a well-coordinated good functional cable:


I have not tried them yet, the small shell size and 9 Ohm will take some to figure out what can work.

Wow. Such clever packaging that I almost forget that they give you an egg bag rather than a proper carrying case waiting for your sound impressions.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Nice!
@https://www.head-fi.org/members/phonophi.505309/

That cable looks amazing!